Abandoned  – a generation of celibate, young people | Matt Mohan-Hickson

The first time we met we barely said more than ‘hi’ to each other.

I can’t remember what my initial impression was but she has since told me I looked like a castaway.

A fair assessment since I was admittedly in the middle of one of my long beard phases.

To describe what came next as a slow burn would be one heck of an understatement. After that first encounter she moved into one of the spare rooms in the house and became part of the gang. In the next couple of years we would chat and joke in the communal kitchen, moan about life and just generally do the things friends do.

Perhaps it would have stayed that way forever had it not been for the first lockdown. For suddenly we were spending more time together, having lunch, doing anything to pass the time.

Lockdown eased but this pattern continued, until she left to visit family in Spain in the summer and, well, you know what they say about absence...

We are now close to marking six months together, which has included two more lockdowns. I am not sure how I would have made it through this third lockdown without her. She has become my anchor.

And Valentine’s Day got me thinking about all the people who were not as lucky. My friends back home who are still living with parents or living alone, and have gone a year without being able to date.

The government has abandoned single people or couples who don’t live together. All the rules are geared to nuclear families. Young people have sacrificed a year of their youth for the greater good and to protect the most vulnerable. They have been left as an afterthought.

In the Netherlands the government issued guidance advising single people to find a ‘sex buddy’ if they wanted intimacy during lockdown.

I got lucky that I happened to be living with the most wonderful of women, but for many that is not the case and they have been simply abandoned.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Lunch dates with my beloved have been a lockdown highlight

Like the rest of you, I’m missing my family and friends. I want to be able to walk around HMV and come out with a bag of Blu-Rays.

I wish I could have been to the cinema at least once this year. I miss wasting hours in the pub, or going out for a date night at a restaurant.

Fingers crossed, with the vaccine roll-out continuing apace, we will get back to looser restrictions. But when that does happen, I will miss one thing: being able to have lunch with my lady every day. It’s a highlight of my day and it will be strange when she goes back to the classroom once schools reopen.

But being able to enjoy the other many upsides of lockdown finishing will make up for that.

It should be illegal to be that cold without the fun of snow

The only time I remember experiencing cold worse than that in Portsmouth in the past week was during an exchange to Wisconsin during university.

The temperature plunged to minus-20C with wind chill. If you stepped outside for more than a few moments it felt as if the breath in your throat was freezing. But at least it snowed and the world looked magical. Here we get sub-zero temperatures but none of the fun. If I could have watched huge flakes fall and built a snowman in the garden, it would at least have made the temperatures bearable. All we got was a punishing chill and a few wintry showers.

Disappointing considering how much snow fell elsewhere.​​​​​​​

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